A US B-52 warplane Saturday dropped at least one bomb on a Taliban-controlled area in northeast Afghanistan, near the front line here close to the Tajik border, an AFP reporter said.

The Dasht-i-Qala front is one of three in Afghanistan where the Taliban militia is battling the opposition Northern Alliance. The others are north of the capital Kabul and around the strategic northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which the opposition seized on Friday.

Further south, a B-52 bomber carpet-bombed Taliban positions near the disused Bagram air base 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kabul early Saturday.

"We are getting ready for a battle to move towards Kabul," opposition commander Amanaulah Gozar said in his base at Jabal Seraj, north of the front lines where thousands of Taliban forces guard access routes to the Afghan capital – AFP